1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a charged particle beam irradiation apparatus that irradiates a charged particle beam.
2. Description of the Related Art
Equipment which performs cancer therapy by irradiating a patient with a charged particle beam such as proton beam is known. This type of equipment is provided with a cyclotron (an accelerator) which accelerates charged particles and emits a charged particle beam, a rotating gantry (a rotating body) on which a rotatable irradiation section which irradiates the patient with the charged particle beam from an arbitrary direction is mounted, and a transport line which transports the charged particle beam emitted from the cyclotron to the irradiation section.
The irradiation section is configured so as to be rotatable with respect to the patient, and various forms of the transport line which transports the charged particle beam to the irradiation section are known. For example, a beam transport line mounted on a rotating gantry described in the related art is disposed so as to make the charged particle beam advancing in a direction of a rotation axis of the rotating gantry advance to be inclined so as to become more distant from the rotation axis, thereafter, turn the charged particle beam to a rotational direction of the rotation axis and then make the charged particle beam advance by a predetermined distance, and bend the charged particle beam advanced by the predetermined distance to the rotation axis side and then transport the charged particle beam to the irradiation section (a nozzle 32). Furthermore, the beam transport line disposed in this manner is supported by a truss-like structure (the rotating gantry).